This invention relates to an improved stuffing horn assembly for food processing equipment and more particularly to an improved stuffing horn assembly for use in combination with a sausage making machine.
Use of a stuffing horn assembly in combination with a sausage making machine for facilitating manufacture of sausage is disclosed in various prior art patents including U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238, Stuffing Machine with Telescoping Nozzle owned by Rheem Manufacturing Company, the assignee of the present application. U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238 is incorporated herewith by reference.
Previously, during manufacture of sausage, sheared casing material is applied over the end of a sausage stuffing horn. The end of the casing is sealed. Sausage material is then discharged through the horn into the casing material and the ends of the casing are clipped to form the completed sausage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238 disclosed a sausage stuffing horn with the additional feature of a telescoping nozzle which may be adjusted to facilitate filling and sealing the ends of the casing in order to improve the quality of the final sausage product.
The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238 works well in its intended environment. However, when the supply of sheared casing has been depleted from the end of a stuffing horn of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238, various mechanisms must be removed or displaced in order to insert new sheared casing material over the end of the horn. This limits productivity of the equipment.
To overcome this disadvantage, sausage machines have been made which include a plurality of horns attached to a single platen. The platen may be rotated to align one of the horns with a sausage discharge outlet of a sausage machine. Simultaneously, sheared casing material is placed on the other horns. Upon depletion of casing from the horn associated with the sausage machine discharge, the platen is rotated to position a different horn with sheared casing material in front of the sausage machine discharge outlet.
The prior art platen device also operates well but does not include a telescoping horn assembly. Complexities associated with providing a horn of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238 for each of the separate horns associated with the platen device apparently prevent successful and economic manufacture of such a device.
The present invention provides a mechanism which incorporates the benefits of a sausage stuffing horn assembly having a plurality of separate stuffing horns while simultaneously incorporating the benefits associated with a telescoping horn assembly of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,238. The structure of the present invention seeks to provide a synergistic effect permitting improved control of indexing of the horns associated with the assembly while simultaneously providing improved control over the meat pump components of the sausage stuffing machine.